knowledge acquired by reading books, as distinguished from that obtained through observation and experience.
formal education.
She thought that common sense was just as important as book learning.
knowledge gained from books rather than from direct personal experience
formal education
First recorded in 1580–90
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And while that book learning was fine and all, neither school taught Berhalter the subject he really wanted to study, which was soccer.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 2, 2022
A new book illuminates that debate — now focused on all disadvantaged children — and reveals the remarkable success that vocational-technical schools in Massachusetts have had strengthening job skills and book learning.
From Washington Post • Jun. 19, 2022
During my dad’s illness, I experienced firsthand what had, until then, just been book learning: Financial planners are often at their best when your life is at its worst.
From New York Times • Feb. 26, 2021
“While book learning was the star of the show up until now, practical, hands-on learning has come into the picture.”
From Seattle Times • Jun. 3, 2020
He had book learning and was almost twenty- one; still he could make a ten-year-old schoolboy feel proud as a man.
From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
